This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Even a chronic, determined underachiever is doomed to succeed every now and then. Just look at George Dubya. Or, more to the point, Paul W. — as in Westerberg.
From his years fronting punk-rock wastrels The Replacements to his lackadaisical solo albums, Westerberg has had a career best described as hit-and-miss — minus the hit. But that hasn’t stopped him from writing and recording some of the most truthful and revealing music of his generation from time to time.
Folker, thankfully, is one of those times. It’s not that he’s changed his style — these 13 cuts toggle between the scrappy, shambling Stones-rock and world-weary acoustic yearning he’s been dishing up for ages (although a couple of Beatle-popish tracks creep into the mix this time). It’s not that he’s changed his attitude — Paul still mood-swings his way between smirking, wisecracking cynicism (“This is my single, this is my jingle / Buy it now, buy it now”) and wistful, hopeless romanticism (“Compared to your eyes, the stars in the skies are dull”). And it’s certainly not that he’s becoming more technically proficient — Paul still mumbles and stumbles through songs, sounding like he spends less on studio time than he does on whiskey and cigarettes.
But compared to the dishevelment of last year’s Come Feel Me Tremble, there is a noticeable difference: Westerberg is trying a little harder this time. So the melodies are a little stronger, the choruses are a little catchier, the lyrics are a little more crafted, and the songs don’t all sound like they were being committed to tape as they were being written.
For Westerberg, those little changes spell the difference between a miss and a hit — and confirm once again that he has made the trip from young punk to old folker with his dignity intact.
